Spirit Animals: Life Of Tarik - Book 1

Death

Tarik could hear his heart pounding in his ears as the guards drew closer to him, rope in hand. A wicked grin appeared on one of the guard's faces as he tried to sit up without wincing in pain. Lumeo chattered in anger at the enemies, while Fang snarled at his attackers, revealing large teeth.

As Tarik looked up at the guards, he squinted to focus on a flying shape in the sky. It was brown, and looked like a devilish creature with two horns. He focused his attention back on the guards, then at the figure again. As it flew closer, Tarik could see that it was a horned owl. But he was confused, there were no horned owls in Zhong!

Suddenly, he realised that the owl was a spirit animal. It was Dorian's spirit animal. The guards stopped in front of Tarik to follow where his gaze was, and they too noticed the owl. Then, there was the horrific sound of dogs barking from across the river.

Alarmed, the guards turned to face the other side of the river, even Fang and Lumeo's attention was focused on the disruption. Using the distraction as an advantage, Tarik attempted to pull the arrow out of his leg, but it was too deep and would only cause more pain to him and more blood loss. The barking dogs were getting closer, they sounded more savage this time. But as he paused to listen closely, he could hear horses running and the owl above him shrieked a battle cry and lunged at the guards with rope, talons out.

Shocked, Tarik could see on the other side of the river people he had not seen in a month or so. First came a beagle and German shepherd racing down the hill into the river, with two Greencloaks on horses he didn't recognise, then Olvan, Dorian, Lishay and Ricko. He could even see Nara and Hanzan! They found the Greencloaks!

Fang and Lumeo attacked the guards, while Zhosur, Lishay's white tiger, jumped into the river and swam with Azrael, Ricko's spirit animal. Olvan's moose charged through the river, splashing around while the horses charged in after. A black tiger took the rear.

The guard behind Tarik grabbed him, hurling him onto his horse. Tarik started throwing punches at the guard, hitting him in the face a few times.

"Tarik!" Lishay cried.

Ricko was right there as the guard rode away with Tarik on his horse. Azrael and Lumeo chased after them in panic. Tarik tried to make the horse stop by slapping it a few times in the head. He even tried to pull the horse's mane, but the guard grabbed one of Tarik's arms and bent it back. He could hear Ricko's horse following behind.

"Let him go!" Ricko yelled at the guard.

"Why? He doesn't belong to you!" the guard yelled back.

"He doesn't belong to you either!" Ricko's tone was controlled, but furious.

"Yeah! Let me go!" Tarik elbowed the guard behind him with his free arm.

As they were distancing themselves from the battle, the noise of metal clanging on metal, spirit animals and yelling dimmed. Tarik had been taken further up along the river, the horse was kicking sand and it was getting in Azrael's eyes. The lynx yowled and pounced on the guard's horse, biting into its rump. The horse, now spooked, started bucking.

Ricko was so close that his horse got kicked in the face, causing him to be thrown off. The guard and Tarik were also thrown off and their horses fled. Tarik landed on his arm, possibly spraining it. He had already messed up his ankle, got shot in the leg and now sprained his arm. Could he have a break?

The guard quickly rose to his feet, facing Ricko and Azrael. The mentor had his sword drawn. Tarik coughed hard into the sand beneath him. He was winded.

The guard raised his sleeve and with a flash, a weasel appeared. Lumeo barred his teeth at the weasel, and it returned the same "greeting".

"We can do this the hard way or easy way," the guard sneered. "I'll give Tarik to you if you give us Fang," he pointed his sword at Tarik's head, "if you don't, I will kill him."

Ricko frowned, aware that Fang was with them but not Lynk. "Where is Lynk?"

Fang had chased Tarik down the river's shoreline with the rest of his remaining strength. He padded passed Ricko and stopped in front of the guard. Ricko's dark eyes were now on Fang.

"Lynk is not here," the guard went on, "he's with us and he will stay with us."

"What are you doing to him?" Ricko remained calm.

"We're not doing anything with him."

"That so?"

Tarik looked up to see them. His eyes met Fang's blue gaze, how he was turning himself in for Tarik's sake. The big cat looked almost sad to say goodbye. The arrow was still sticking out from his shoulder.

The guard held Fang by his chained amulet and pulled Fang away, his weasel following.

"No! Don't take him!" Tarik cried as he reached a hand out for Fang.

Fang did not look back, but his tail flicked in sorrow, his ears pinned back. Ricko crouched down in front of Tarik and pulled him close to his chest. Suddenly, Tarik was no longer happy he had been found, he watched the guard take Fang away. The big cat saved him multiple times, and stayed by his side the entire journey. It was as if Tarik had two spirit animals.

Tarik wrapped his arms around his mentor and started to sob.

~~~

Tarik and Ricko had been brought back to the others on the river's shore. There were dead animals and people in their path. Tarik's face was a mess, and he was embarrassed to face his friends at such a vulnerable state.

He saw the other Greencloaks surrounding somebody and Lishay had her hand over her mouth as if she was going to be sick, she stood to the side, looking away. As he and Ricko approached, the senior Greencloak released Tarik from his grip.

"What happened?" he asked as he rushed over to the scene.

"Our friend has died," Olvan replied sadly, closing the girl's eyes.

Tarik peeked over their shoulders, and then he stared in horror. Dorian looked at Tarik, and took him to Lishay. Hanzan was comforting her as well as Zhosur.

Nara was dead.